Craig Francis

Parallels Setup

I run a lovely little MacBook which helps me test websites I'm developing in Internet Explorer.

The typical setup of Parallels allows this kind of testing, however I have a few additional requirements:

So, the initial installation:

  1. Run the Parallels Installer - at the time of writing I am using version 4, build 3844.
  2. Start the 'Parallels Desktop' application.
  3. Create the Windows virtual machine.
  4. When Windows is finally running, shut it down.

While still in Parallels, goto 'Parallels Desktop > Preferences > Network', and when you select "Host-only networking" from the drop down menu, disable the DHCP server, and use the following setup:

  1. Start address: 192.168.2.1
  2. End address: 192.168.2.254
  3. Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

Then update the configuration of the virtual machine, so the Network Adapter it is enabled, connected, and using "Host-only networking".

After doing this configuration we need to restart the Mac... this is to ensure that the virtual network is working, and using the new configuration.

In your Macs 'System Preferences', under the 'Network' preference pane, look for the 'Parallels Host-Guest' interface. If you cannot find it, then give your Mac another restart.

  1. The interface should be configured "Manually" (not via DHCP), if you need to change this, do so and restart the machine again. It seems that Parallels will replace the interfaces configuration on start-up, so we should be using that.

  2. So now the interface should be using:

    • IP Address: 192.168.2.2
    • Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
    • Router: Blank
    • DNS Servers: Blank

    It appears that the 192.168.2.2 address comes from the configuration you did earlier, by setting the (disabled) DHCP server to start using the IP addresses 192.168.2.1 - where 192.168.2.2 is the next in the sequence.

  3. Now, open a terminal and run 'ifconfig', look for 192.168.2.2, and then note the interface (e.g. 'en3').
  4. If you want the virtual machine to have access to the internet, open the 'Sharing' preference pane and enable 'Internet Sharing', allowing the main internet connection (Built-in Ethernet), to be shared with the Parallels interface(s), which you noted down earlier (usually 'en3').

Now start the virtual machine and:

  1. Ignore the wining little OS, as it complains about lack of network connectivity... we know!
  2. In the control panel, in the 'classic' view (as I have no idea how to use the other one), select 'Network Connections'.
  3. Right click the 'Local Area Connection' and select 'Properties'.
  4. Double click on the 'Internet Protocol' connection type.

  5. Specify the following setup:

    • IP address: 192.168.2.3
    • Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
    • Default gateway: 192.168.2.1
    • Preferred DNS server: 192.168.2.1

    I'm not sure why, but even though Parallels has configured your mac to use 192.168.2.2, the VM's talk to 192.168.2.1 - I think this is a feature of having internet sharing enabled.

    You should also switch off the Windows firewall - it just causes too much trouble, for relatively no security improvement.

  6. Also, defying common logic, switch off the 'Automatic Updates' in the control panel... we do not want to install IE7+ yet.

Give the Mac another restart, to ensure everything starts up correctly.

The virtual machine should now be setup and ready to go, but I would suggest that before you install any more software you should make some copies of this virtual machine, and on each one install:

As a nice little feature of this setup, you can now configure QuickSilver to index the Parallels folder, so you can quick launch the virtual machines by using the 'pvm' files.

You might also want to look at setting up the Flash Plugin Switcher on the XP-IE6 box, to help you test different installations of the Flash player... although this application only allows switching in version 8 and later for Firefox/Netscape/Opera, the ActiveX versions for IE seem to have locking problems... version 2 - 7 seem to be fine in both set-ups.

And finally, if you will be using your Windows virtual machines for testing your websites, now is a good time to setup the DNS server.

Thank you for reading this article, any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you would like to take a copy of this article, please read the terms this article is released under. This article was originally written Saturday 16th June 2007 and was updated on Tuesday 1st January 2008.